A Will Eternal: Blood Ancestor [(4)] |
Sir Frigid Blood hesitated. As he did, his Master suddenly vanished.
Zhen Ling’er looked at Sir Frigid Blood bitterly as she floated up into the air like a tattered flower.
Daoist Heavenspan didn’t perform any sort of soul expulsion. Instead, he attacked and delivered a mortal blow to the already wounded Zhen Ling’er.
Sir Frigid Blood stared mutely, his mind reeling, his thoughts blank. He trembled as his eyes filled with disbelief. He refused to believe. He didn’t dare to believe it. He couldn’t believe it. “Master, you....”
Daoist Heavenspan no longer attempted to hide the truth. He wasn’t even paying attention to Sir Frigid Blood. Eyes bloodshot and face distorted, he shouted, “Zhen Ling’er! You dispelled the Live Forever Codex?! Damn you! Damn you forever! How could you dispel the Live Forever Codex I gave you?”
And then Zhen Ling’er spoke her final words. “Now... you can’t make the Undying Live Forever Pill, Master.... You failed....”
Then her life force ran out.
“Bitch!” Enraged, Daoist Heavenspan extended his hand with the intention of exterminating Zhen Ling’er’s soul from the world!
“Elder Sister!!” Sir Frigid Blood shouted, his eyes crimson as he rushed forward furiously. Now he fully understood everything. The sky was as red as blood. Crimson clouds seethed, and lightning crashed. Unprecedented waves of energy surged, full of grief, heartbreak, hatred, ferocity, and brutality.
But Daoist Heavenspan was as tenacious as a mountain. Unleashing similar energy, he waved his hand, and all the lands quaked. It was as if he had grasped the magical laws of the world itself, causing golden lightning to swirl around his fingertips.
The astonishing blood spear hit the tips of fingers and collapsed into blood-red dust.
“Rebellious child. How dare you defy me!” Eyes bloodshot, Daoist Heavenspan glared at Sir Frigid Blood.
Sir Frigid Blood’s eyes pulsed with grief and indignation. He said nothing. Looking full of madness, he attacked with full force. There was no way he could let his Elder Sister’s discarnate soul be wiped out.
“Ah, whatever. The Live Forever Codex is gone, so your Undying Codex is useless. You two spoiled my plan... so you can both die!”
Daoist Heavenspan waved his hand, and brightly colored light flashed in heaven and earth. Thunder crashed, and the previously crimson sky was covered by violet clouds filled with golden lightning. The blood-red clouds were completely ripped to shreds! The golden lightning then became a sky-obscuring, sun-blocking hand, full of the magical laws of heaven and earth. And it descended down to crush Sir Frigid Blood.
Sir Frigid Blood looked up, his eyes crimson. He did not choose to evade. Instead, he threw his head back and howled. He lifted his right hand, and the ice of the northern reaches beneath him shattered. A huge blood-colored vortex appeared underfoot as countless streams of blood energy emerged, which turned into a scarlet imperial fiend!
“Blood Fiend... Ancestral Fist!”[1]
The fist gathered all of the strength in Sir Frigid Blood’s fleshly body. It was extremely domineering. All of his thoughts were focused on one thing: shattering the hand of lightning and breaking the shackles that bound him and Zhen Ling’er. Even if it meant sacrificing his own life, he would make sure Zhen Ling’er’s soul had a chance to survive!
Rumbling echoed out as the blood-red fist hit the golden hand of lightning. Instantly, the world trembled. The clouds seethed. Ice plains shattered. Something like a storm wind wreaked havoc in front of Sir Frigid Blood. The powerful Undying Skin began to rip apart. Undying Blood sprayed out everywhere.
A rain of blood seemed to fall and stain the ice plains! The blood then gathered, turning into what seemed like endless streams of crimson!
RUUUUUUUUMBLE!
All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but it happened in an instant. Next, Sir Frigid Blood was hit by the massive golden palm, which smashed him down into the ice.
“You think a bit too much of yourself, rebellious child!” Daoist Heavenspan snorted coldly. Then, his expression vicious, he turned his attention once more to Zhen Ling’er’s withered corpse. He had been working on this plan for many sixty-year-cycles, only for Zhen Ling’er to ruin it all! “You two had no hope of surviving this. Why did you have to defy me?”
Daoist Heavenspan’s palm moved again, this time toward Zhen Ling’er’s lifeless body. Grabbing the last bit of her discarnate soul, he prepared to wipe it out of existence. After all, Zhen Ling’er knew far too many of his secrets!
But then, Daoist Heavenspan’s expression flickered. At some unknown point, the arm that he had used to grab Zhen Ling’er’s discarnate soul had come to be covered with a blood mist. The blood mist grew increasingly dense, until his arm couldn’t move at all. Looking around, he saw that the blood rain was falling harder, which was creating more blood mist. And the streams of blood on the ice plains were turning into torrents.
“This....” Daoist Heavenspan couldn’t stop his eyes from widening, and was unable to prevent his astonishment from showing on his face.
In the depths of the blood mist, a towering figure appeared. And it was racing toward Daoist Heavenspan. The aura on the figure surpassed anything from before. It was on the same level as Daoist Heavenspan, although it was clearly unstable and wouldn’t last for long. It had obviously been achieved after paying a great price.
“You’re using the Undying Hex?” Daoist Heavenspan’s face fell. “You actually achieved enlightenment of that level of the Undying Codex?”
In his right hand, the discarnate soul of Zhen Ling’er swayed back and forth weakly. But apparently, a layer of blood-red gauze covered it, protecting it so that Daoist Heavenspan couldn’t harm it, at least for the moment. As Sir Frigid Blood neared, Daoist Heavenspan waved his left hand. A host of golden flying swords appeared, which rushed toward Sir Frigid Blood at top speed, like a host of destructive golden lightning bolts.
Sir Frigid Blood’s expression was one of infinite determination. He didn’t dodge. He let the golden flying swords stab right through him. He sped up. The rivers of blood below surged toward him, circling around him like a blood-red tempest. Blood-red lightning streaked through the violet clouds overhead, like crimson snakes lashing out at the golden lightning.
The crashing thunder sounded like the roar of gods.
Sir Frigid Blood was covered with roiling blood energy that resembled a crimson suit of armor that unleashed fierce screams.
“Undying Nirvanic Extermination Cleaving!”
The power erupting beneath Sir Frigid Blood’s feet caused the ice for 3,000 meters in all directions to shatter. Like an arrow loosed from a bow, he shot toward Daoist Heavenspan. He had one goal, and one thing to expend energy on. He would slam into Daoist Heavenspan. He would shatter his Master’s bones into ashes. It didn’t matter that it required putting everything on the line. He would do that to land the blow. He would pursue justice with no second thoughts!
Daoist Heavenspan’s eyes gleamed with a fierce light as he waved his left arm again. Golden lightning converged, becoming an endless eruption of light. Blinding, the golden light swept from his arm, turning into a golden palm that rumbled right toward Sir Frigid Blood.
RUUUUUUUUMBLE!
When the two forces collided, crevices opened up in the ground everywhere. Ice turned into steam, the violet clouds seethed, and blinding light filled heaven and earth. It was as if eternity had been ripped open and time had been shattered! The entirety of the Heavenspan Realm seemed to be trembling.
Then the golden palm collapsed, and Sir Frigid Blood’s blood-red immortal light shone with dazzling brightness, wreaking havoc everywhere! His enormous frame smashed through all obstacles to collide directly with Daoist Heavenspan. The blow shook heaven and earth. The sky changed color. Everything shattered. The northern reaches trembled.
The Master’s kindness was eradicated. The Master’s love was severed.
***
In the lower reaches of the eastern Heavenspan River, the blood rain had ceased to fall. The violet clouds had scattered. The bright light of the sun shone down on endless beautiful flowers below, as well as onto the shattered body of the giant.
Within the shadow of the giant cast by the sun, the black-robed old man looked up and quietly said, “And then what?”
“And then the old man was ripped to shreds so badly he couldn’t possibly recover faster than three days.” The blood-red giant sighed. Then he lifted his hand. There, amidst the shredded skin and broken golden bones, was a pearl. Shockingly, inside that pearl was a discarnate soul. It was Zhen Ling’er. “Then I took back my Elder Sister’s soul.”
The man in black said nothing.
“Old man, do you remember the first thing you said to me, three days ago?”
“Was all of this worth it?” the old man said quietly.
“It took me two days to tell you the story. And that is my answer to your question.”
And with that, he finally ceased walking after two days. He was far enough away from Heavenspan Island.
Things were bright here. The sun shone down on a bright sea of dazzling flowers in that area. Just barely, the giant could see a boy and a girl holding hands within that sea of flowers, skipping along without care or worry.
“Little Junior Brother, do your wounds still hurt?”
“Nah, they don’t hurt. Are you still sad, Elder Sister?”
“Nope. I’m not sad anymore...”
The boy and the girl got farther and farther away. And once again, a faint smile appeared on the face of the blood-soaked giant. It was like he had gone back in time. Everything he had done was worth it, if he could protect that memory.
As he smiled, he looked down at his palm. The discarnate soul and the silver pearl had already become one. Divine sense was sealed on the silver pearl. Nothing from the outside world could penetrate it. He waved his hand, and the silver pearl flew off into the distance. He watched as the pearl, which contained Zhen Ling’er’s discarnate soul, gradually disappeared into the sunlight. His Elder Sister’s discarnate soul had escaped the will of Heavenspan. It had escaped everything, almost as if it had been reincarnated.
The smile on the giant’s face became one of gratitude. “In this world, there is nothing that is worth it or not worth it. There is only that which the heart chooses willingly!”
After murmuring that, the blood-red giant slowly sank down into the waters of the Heavenspan River. His life ended.
The only thing left was his hand, and perhaps a bit of love, reaching toward the sea of flowers, and to the young boy and girl off in the distance....
For years after that, in fact, for many, many years, that part of the Heavenspan River featured a huge hand reaching out of the water.
Time passed. Springs passed. Autumns came. Summers went. Winters arrived. Eventually, a group of people came and started a sect atop that hand. The sect came to be known as the Blood Stream Sect.
The sea of flowers had long since disappeared, and no one knew exactly why the hand was reaching in that one specific direction....
The End
---
Translator note: The events of this side story were key to the entire plot of A Will Eternal. We first saw the Blood Stream Sect built atop the hand in chapter 184. Go back to chapter 973, and you will find the events of this story recounted by Du Lingfei, although they are a twisted version told to her by her father. The story of Zhen Ling’er, a.k.a. Frigid Matriarch, was mostly explained in chapter 1006. In chapter 1013 we get the Blood Ancestor’s version. He is, of course, Sir Frigid Blood. His final moments were in chapter 1020. There are many other chapters where these various concepts are brought up, I’m not going to link to them all. Suffice it to say that the elements relating to the Frigid Sect, Blood Ancestor, Frigid Matriarch, Celestial, Undying Live Forever Technique, etc. were all pivotal to the plot of AWE.
Thank you to Rajiv Ahmed, UnifiedDivide, and Jeddrick for helping to proofread!
1. This technique name bears almost exactly the same name as a technique mentioned in chapter 889 of A Will Eternal. ☜
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